ICCR stages play ‘When We Dead Awaken’

12/08/2017

Jammu, Aug 11: Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Ministry of External Affairs Government of India in association with J&K Academy of Art Culture and languages organised the screening of world famous play 'When We Dead Awaken' written by Henrik Ibsen and directed by India's most celebrated internationally acclaimed theatre director Ratan Thiyam here at Abhinav Theatre Jammu. Welcoming the august gathering at Abhinav Theatre Jammu, Regional Director of Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) Jammu & Kashmir Balwant Thakur said that as a part of the follow-up of the historic programme 'An Interaction with Ratan Thiyam', it was necessitated that out of the world works of Ratan Thiyam are shown to Jammu theatre lovers and practioners. Though there is no alternative to the live performance but at least this initiative of ICCR and J&K Cultural Academy will go a long way in exposing the J&K audiences to the best of the theatre works being produced world over.
On the occasion he thanked J&K Cultural academy in supporting this endeavour of ICCR and desired to bring much more such occasions for Jammuites. Commenting on the show Balwant Thakur said that Ratan Thiyam has tried to feel a different Ibsen based on the imagery, fantasy and ecstasy he has created in the play, far from the realistic and conventional mould. The performance becomes more subtle, symbolic, suggestive and stylised according to the demands of the content. Interestingly Ratan Thiyam has given a magical interpretation to a realist play which is almost a textbook for the younger generation of directors who grab the multimedia projector for the slightest need to disengage from realism. Thiyam's tribute to Ibsen was theatre at its purest. Few other directors of his generation have constantly reinvented themselves as Ratan Thiyam has. Balwant Thakur further informed that ICCR takes pride in the fact that this play was sponsored by ICCR to lot of International festivals including few in USA.
In the play When we dead awaken, Saktam Lakpa is an ageing, celebrated sculptor who has achieved great international fame with his sculpture "The Day of the Resurrection". The model for this piece of sculpture was Saktam, who earlier had considered it her lifework to accompany Saktam Lakpa and help him in his work. They appear to have had strong feelings for each other at that time, but Saktam Lakpa refused to consider Saktam as anything more than his model, so, disappointed and angry, she left him. Since then, Saktam Lakpa's creative power has diminished, and he now feels that he can no longer create art of any significance. Saktam, alone, holds the key to his creativity. He has married Sakhenbi, a considerably younger woman, and the two of them have lived abroad in a marriage that has gradually become somewhat cold. The play opens with Saktam Lakpa and Sakhenbi.
They meet Lamlanba, a hunter, who invites Sakhenbi to go to the mountains with him. One of the guests at the hotel is a mysterious woman dressed in white and accompanied by a nurse. This turns out to be Saktam. She has been married twice, and has been in a mental hospital. She seems to be in the grip of a "living death", and in a painful confrontation she accuses Saktam Lakpa of having ruined her life and stolen her soul. For his part he begs her to come back to him so that he can regain his creative power. The two of them go up into the mountains to become lovers again. Near the top they meet Sakhenbi and Lamlanba. A storm blows up, and Sakhenbi and Lamlanba go down the mountain into safety, while Saktam and Saktam Lakpa go on towards the peak, where they die.

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